A source told the Daily Star that gangsters at the carnival use “drink bottles filled with acid” to avoid being caught by police.

They allegedly told the newspaper that these attacks are most likely to happen on the final day of the carnival.

Before the bank holiday carnival took place, Dave Musker, who is in charge of policing the event, said: “People should be under no illusion that if they think they can swan in with a bottle of Lucozade with acid in and not be able to be detected by police.

“We have the methods, the people, the highly-trained professionals, and we will look at them, and I will press for them to be arrested and charged and brought before the courts.”

As of 3.30pm on Monday, some 149 arrests had been made at the carnival- over a third of which, 61, were for drug offences, the Met said.

There were 17 public order arrests, and 15 arrests for possession of an offensive weapon, or knife/blade.

Police officers patrol the carnival(Image: Barcroft Media)

Partiers dancing in the streets paused to observe a minute’s silence in memory of those who died in the Grenfell Tower fire.

At 3pm on Monday sound systems stopped blaring and the carnival procession paused for 60 seconds to remember the at least 80 victims of the devastating tower block fire.

Around half a mile away from the charred high-rise, firefighters lined up, removed their helmets and bowed their heads outside North Kensington fire station.

A dancer smiles as she takes part in the parade on bank holiday Monday

The moment was concluded with a spontaneous round of applause and cheers from the hundreds of thousands of carnivalists celebrating the bank holiday weekend.

The firefighters were then embraced, congratulated and thanked by carnival goers, posing for photos with them.

Sunday’s incident follows a recent spike in the number of attacks involving corrosive substances.

More than 400 were carried out in the six months up to April 2017, according to figures from 39 forces in England and Wales.

The Metropolitan Police has said its response cars will now carry equipment that will help officers to better deal with calls to such attacks.